Do you own an Amiga or AtariST?

[TFM]

If the answer is yes, then you may like to help me with some easy benchmarks.

It's some real-life related stuff, like print characters, load files, and so on.

If you would like to help me to do some easy benchmarks, then please PM me.

Also other computer systems are welcome.

[beaker]

Sure, I have a 1040STf that I bought off ebay several weeks ago and not done anything with apart from test it works and get a scart for it (as it came with a black and white monitor). Mouse should be arriving in the next week or so.... I also have a Commodore 64 if that helps?

[Gryzor]

What are you preparing? I do have STs and Amigas, but they're tucked away; if it's something interesting though,...

[woody.cool]

Being a mad retro collector I own the following:

AMIGA

   
• Amiga 500: 68000, OCS, Kicksart 1.2, 512KB RAM
• Amiga 500: 68000, ECS, Kickstart 2.04, 512KB CHIP RAM, 512KB FAST RAM
• Amiga 500+: 68010, ECS, Kickstart 3.1, 2MB CHIP RAM, 8MB FAST RAM and a CF-IDE adaptor
• Amiga 1000: 6800, OCS, soft-boot Kickstart, 512KB RAM
• Amiga 1500: 68000, ECS, Kickstart 1.3/3.1 switchable, 1MB CHIP RAM, 4MB FAST RAM and CF-IDE adaptor
• Amiga 1200: 68020, 68881, AGA, Kickstart 3.1, 2MB CHIP RAM, 8MB FAST RAM, 4GB CF drive
• Amiga 1200: 68020, AGA, Kickstart 3.0, 2MB CHIP RAM only, 1GB HDD
• Amiga CDTV: 68000, ECS, Kickstart 1.3, 1MB CHIP RAM only, knackered CD drive
• Amiga 600: 68000, ECS, Kickstart 1.3/3.1 switchable, 2MB CHIP RAM, 2GB CF drive
• Amiga 600: 68000, ECS, Kickstart 2.05, 1MB CHIP RAM only

ATARI ST

   
• Atari 520STFM: 68000, TOS 1.04, 512KB RAM
• Atari 520STE: 68000, TOS 1.04, 4MB RAM, external ACSI 1GB hard drive
• Atari 520STF: 68000, TOS 1.02, 512KB RAM - dead

.... I have too much time on my hands

I also own the following, if any of these are of interest

   
• Amstrad CPC 464 with DDI-1 and FD1
• Amstrad CPC 6128 with external 3.5" drive
• Amstrad GX4000 - somehow this is dead! PSU works, I get power, but no picture (just a black screen)
• Spectrum 48K with composite mod
• Spectrum +2 (grey)
• Commodore C64c
• Acorn BBC Micro model B
• Acorn Archimedes A4000

Other than that, I have consoles, but not sure if you're interested in Sega or Nintendo stuff

[TFM]

WoW!!!


Well, sorry for the delay, now what is it about? Usually benchmark tests are very specific and tell about the CPU performance or the drives performance. But in all this cases the measured values don't represent the regular working condidions (for example games, wordprocessor, compiler... music player...whatever).

Now I compiled a very basic set of functions like load a file of defined size or things like that... they will tell us more about the real-life performance of a computer.

Please take a look at the attached file...

You can use the system clock or a stop watch in the hand for measuring time. It you repeat the test at least three times, then you get a better result.

Don't hesistate to ask me questions if something is not clear.

And if you decide to do some or even all of the suggested tests, please tell me which computer (exactly ;-)) has been used).

Thanks' a lot for your help in advance.

If you start testing a certain system, please post it here, so others will not do the same :-)
(I already did them all on the CPC).

PM or post results here.

Guess c64 and speccy are also of interrest, CPC is not supposed to be the last ;-)

[MacDeath]

I own an A500 and a pair of Atari STE (one with 512k and one with 1024K).
I rarely turn them on to be honnest.


While A500 is an impressive "multimedia" machine, the non standard 3"1/2 disk drive despite enabling more Datas on disk (like 800K ?) than the common 720K... is non standard, so on the very long term (retro, 25years later) it wasn't a good move.


I managed to repaire both my STE by cannibalizing an old 520STF unit that didn't worked at all, could take the keyboard, the upper casing, and the disk drive... thats a great point, such parts were re-usable right into the Falcon generation. a nice and clever move 25 years later.


The STF is somewhat rustic but comparable to Amstrad CPC6128 but in 16bit.
Average every where so not really flawed anywhere.


The STE is like the PLUS, too little too late, yet I found the fact it was never really exploited so interesting.
Also it is a bit more betterly upgraded from the basic ST than the PLUS is from the CPC, IMO.


Had the Amstrad PLUS featured a few extra tuff like better fully "pointed" sprites (not the tiles you upload into the ASIC), with no height limitation... and perhaps one extra sound channel designed to run samples... and a little blitter to ease the CPU... could have been huge 8 bit.


Falcon is also unexploited and almost killed at birth by the Tramiels... but is also a great machine.




the main flaw from the ST/STF/STE series is the 16 colours limitation.
as the "hardsprites from the STE are "half hard", I mean done by the blitter, not really Hardsprite I guess, they share the same palette as the rest of the screen, couldn't find things on them.


This is a good point with the PLUS, the sprites do have their own extra +16 (15+transp) palette...


A500 had the 32 colour mode, that lessen such method.


Something I wished the ST had was the "overscan mode" as it is on the Amstrad... this would be really cool.
But hey, on those computers, you often had a real monitor able to resize the picture, so you could have no border on the screen.
still the fact the CPC and not the monitor get to do it, and the CPC do it by putting extra pixels (not bigger pixels) is awesome.




The STE is to me a machine of choice to do some Demo.
Because of its unexploited nature, you can only surprise peoples.


A500 is overly too commonly used.




All those machines are good.


Amigagas often bitche the other because it "sucks at gaming", but they forget it is a computer that can also only be used to "work seriously".


On the other hand, my first PC was an AT286 EGA with 640K, HDD, 2x HD diskdrives (5"1/4 art 1.22megs and 3"1/2 at 1.44meg) and 12mhz, full of fast DMA disk accesses.
It can really laugh out loud at those pathetic 8mhz or less machines.


but yeay, only beeper and EGA had a lots of flaws too.


And games couldn't exploit my PC because they also had to run on fucking CGA in less than 8mhz and only 512K and simple DD 720K or 360K disks...

Amstrad GX4000 - somehow this is dead! PSU works, I get power, but no picture (just a black screen)

have you tried both video out ? the "PLUS monitor" one and the peritel one ?

[TFM]

Impressive 

Hope to get some results after one weekend 

[protek]

I've got an A600, A1200 and A4000. Also got an Atari 520 STE with 1 MB and waiting for 4 MB to arrive. Only the Amiga 4000 is currently set up.

[TFM]

Some benchmark tests from that machine would be great 

[Optimus]

I've recently got an AtariST 1040STFM (not so recently, but I've only recently fired it up cause I used to have only monochrome monitor and recently found a TV cable to use it for demos and stuff) and really love it, reading 68000 assembly too these days
I used to have an Amiga500 and 1200 but not anymore.


I love benchmarks. Is it something not so hard I could try? What have you prepared? PM me and hopefully if it doesn't take time to test and my time is fair I'll try soon.

[Bryce]

I have an A500 Rev6 upgraded to A500+ 2MB and an A600 modded to the extreme: Overclocked, 8MB RAM, 8GB HD, LAN, W-LAN, USB, S-Video, Internal HxC. I doubt these are suitable for any benchmark, they are too far from the original standard.

Bryce.

[TFM]

Why not? Would be interesting to see their results too. Especially in thing like 'loading a file' it can be interesting to see differences - or not.

Looking forward to get results here. Up to now..... well, patience is a virtue 

[MacDeath]

Atari Falcon also looks like a fine piece of Hardware built in pure Awesomnium.









Reviews: Which C For Me? START's First C Comparison

BASIC Benchmark - CPCWiki - The Ultimate Amstrad CPC Community & Encyclopedia!

http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?p=615523


http://www.gloub.com/musee/bench.phtml

[TFM]

Well, that kind of benchmark is exactly what I don't want, because it tells you right ... nothing   Because it tells you nothing about usability and real life working efficiency.


Please refer to the attached document (see one of my posts before).

[TFM]

Hi again!
Well, a lot of posts, a lot of people who have those machines - but sadly nobody who did do only one single benchmark. As I always say, if you want it done then do it by yourself!

[beaker]

Hi TFM/FS,

Sorry, I had to pull an all-weekender to meet a deadline a few weekends back then a couple of days later my Dad was diagnosed with multiple clots on both lungs so have been helping ferrying him to and from the hospital and the GP and catching up with work in my spare time. I'll try to get back to this soon.

Beaker

[beaker]

Hi TFM/FS,

I've only managed to do a couple of tests on my STf with the following results. Not sure how I can either generate files to a specific size or copy a files over as I don't have a PC with a floppy disk drive anymore? Let me know if there's anything else on your list I should be able to do? I've also taken a screenshot with some system info.

Description	Time 1	Time 2	Time 3
Format a disc of 80 tracks, doublesided	01:40	01:40.5	01:40
Copy a disc: 80 tracks, one drive only	02:41.9	02:42.6	02:41.7

Beaker

[TFM]

The first results!!! Thank you so much!!! 

[TFM]

Hi TFM/FS,

Sorry, I had to pull an all-weekender to meet a deadline a few weekends back then a couple of days later my Dad was diagnosed with multiple clots on both lungs so have been helping ferrying him to and from the hospital and the GP and catching up with work in my spare time. I'll try to get back to this soon.

Beaker

Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. I send your dad my best wishes to get healthy soon.

[MugUK]

I've got the 16Mhz MegaSTE if that counts?  (also have an Amiga 4000 but that gathers dust on a shelf due to lack of space to set it up and run).

[TFM]

Sure it counts    Why not? As long as you can describe the hardware (which is what you already did  )

[MacDeath]

I've only managed to do a couple of tests on my STf with the following results.

is it easy to connect an Atari STF on such a flat screen ? is this a VGA monitor or a TV ?
no issues with the 16/10 ratio ?


Sorry, it is hot summer, I can't do anything, nor connecting my 16bits at the moment...
but one of theses days I will have a look at some mods for my STE like upgrading into 16mhz, adding IDE port and HDD perhaps, if possible...


This is really a machine i like.

[TFM]

Well, to feed you some informations, AND TO MOTIVATE YOU TO DO SOME BENCHMARKS    here the first results... THANKS TO BEAKER!!!

I Disc management
-----------------
I.1 Format a disc: 40 tracks (Data) or 80 tracks (Vortex, 720 KB MS-DOS or AtariST)
o--------o----------o--------o---------o----------o----------o--------o-------o----------o
!  Test  ! FutureOS ! X-DDOS ! DoMagic ! CP/M 2.2 ! CP/M 3.1 ! UTOPIA !Windows! AtariSTF !
!        !  ROM OS  ! on ROM ! PD Prog.! bootable ! bootable ! on ROM ! 2000  !  8 MHz   !
>--------+----------+--------+---------+----------+----------+--------+-------+----------<
! Data   !    16    !   17   !    18   !    33    !    33    !   43   !  n.f. !   n.f.   !
>--------+----------+--------+---------+----------+----------+--------+-------+----------<
! Vortex !    64    !   65   !   n.f.  !    65    !   n.f.   !  n.f.  !  104  !   100    !
o--------o----------o--------o---------o----------o----------o--------o-------o----------o

I.2 Copy a disc: 40 / 80 tracks, one or two drive(s)
o--------o----------o--------o---------o----------o----------o--------o-------o----------o
!  Test  ! FutureOS ! X-DDOS ! DoMagic ! CP/M 2.2 ! CP/M 3.1 ! UTOPIA !Windows! AtariSTF !
!        !  ROM OS  ! on ROM ! PD Prog.! bootable ! bootable ! on ROM !  2000 !  8 MHz   !
>--------+----------+--------+---------+----------+----------+--------+-------+----------<
!40 track!    20    !   n.f. !    42   !    66    !    63    !   71   !  n.f. !   n.f.   !
!1 drive !1 change* !        !1 change*! 7 changes! 5 changes!9 chang.!       !          !
>--------+----------+--------+---------+----------+----------+--------+-------+----------<
!2 drives!    20    !   n.f. !    42   !    69    !    69    !   69   !  n.f. !   n.f.   !
>========+==========+========+=========+==========+==========+========+=======+==========<
!80 track!    77    !  n.f.  !   n.f.  !    257   !   n.f.   !  n.f.  !  n.f. !   162    !
! 1 drive!5 changes#!        !         !45 changes!          !        !       !          !
>--------+----------+--------+---------+----------+----------+--------+-------+----------<
!2 drives!    76    !  n.f.  !   n.f.  !    207   !   n.f.   !  n.f.  !  n.f. !   n.f.   !
>--------+----------+--------+---------+----------+----------+--------+-------+----------<
* This copy was made with a minimum of 224 KB free expansion RAM.
  With fewer free RAM, you must change the discs more often.
# Copy with 432 KB free E-RAM. Less E-RAM -> more disc changes.

[ralferoo]

This isn't *really* helping, as this is based on 20 year memories, but the standard disk copy on the Amiga was dog slow but IIRC, X-Copy took around 42 seconds for 2 drives and about 42.1 seconds for 3 copies if you had 4 drives!

If I ever manage to excavate my Amiga from the bottom of a big pile of junk and clear enough desk space to set it up again, I'll try to get some timings from it, but back in 1993 I had a "zero tolerance to pirated software crusade", so I might well have deleted X-copy anyway.. 

[TFM]

You can use any copy-tool you like, just mention precisely the hardware and the software.
And I'm pretty sure you can download everything today from the net, like for CPCs too